


the oracle & the pauper

by gamblignant8 (maltesecaptainfalcon)



Series: Starwatcher [2]
Category: Vast Error
Genre: F/F, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Vast Error - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 08:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16404647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maltesecaptainfalcon/pseuds/gamblignant8
Summary: Sovara Amalie is safe, warm, and absolutely cannot focus on the movie.





	the oracle & the pauper

> “ _What’s playing at the Roxy? I’ll tell you what’s playing at the Roxy!_ ”

Sovara Amalie is safe, warm, and absolutely cannot focus on the movie.

Her eyes looked in the direction of the screen, sure. She’d normally be glued to the scene playing on the tablet on the table in front of her, of course. 

> “ _Picture ‘bout a corporation man so in love with a hotdog farmer girl that he sacrificies everything and moves all the ways to the boonies! That’s what’s playing at the Roxy!_ ”

“Guys and Dolls” has been one of her favorites to watch since she got to the cottage. Anything with good music and inventive staging would usually have her engrossed, taking mental notes about how to replicate the performances herself one day. But.

The next bars of the song didn’t even register with her, because Albion Shukra just put a hand on hers. Every breath Sova took came with a mental measure, focused, so as not to betray her fear and excitement.

_One, two, three. One, two, three._

As Sova counted out a waltz to keep her composure, Albion circled her thumb slowly on the back of her palm. Embarrassingly, she nearly shuddered at just that. She took a quick look over to see Albion, focused on the film, completely calm and placid, totally comfortable in this moment where her own heart was sounding pizzicato notes in her chest.

Sova looked too long, and her stomach did a flip when Albion noticed, round eyes peering in her direction with a little smile as the number on the screen came to a close.

Albion had already kissed her once, but it was just a quick brush, a customary end to a date. That hadn’t stopped Sova from memorizing every bit of how she felt in that moment. She could feel the warmth radiating from her face, flushed at the memory. The movie played on, but Albion kept looking into her eyes until Sova broke the gaze, meekly looking down and giving a nervous laugh.

Albion let go of her hand at this, putting both of her own over her mouth to hide a smile. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you nervous,” she said, voice high like a long violin note, “I just couldn’t look away.”

Sovara’s carmine flush certainly didn’t _lessen_ at that. And by the time Albion puts an arm around her narrow shoulders and pulls Sova in close to watch the film leaning on her, she may well qualify as a Yulepassing light with how much she feels she’s glowing. Her heart is doing more than pounding in her chest, at this point, she can feel the beat in her arms and legs. All her senses were amplified in the moment. The rosewater smell of Albion’s hair falling in tresses so close to her, the brush of her palm moving up and down her upper arm, the feeling of leaning into this soft presence that dared bless her hive...it was a heady and intoxicating rush like none she’d ever experienced before. She was perched at the cliff’s edge between fear and rapture, mind racing at a mile a minute.

When Albion kissed the top of her head and made a contented little _hm_ , though, she decided. While a love story played out on the screen in front of the two girls on the couch, all flashy show tunes and bright colors, another, smaller, safer one played out in Sova’s heart. As she sank in to rest on Albion’s chest, she thought of Hermia and Lysander, and the plays she may one day write about this merciful creature under whose spell she’d fallen.

* * *

The film ended in pomp, circumstance and a double matespritship. Perhaps too sentimental for some, but the familiar beat was exactly what she needed.

As the credits began to roll, Albion shifted and Sova reluctantly left her embrace to let her sit up and turn off the screen.

SOVA: _(so, what did you think?)_  
ALBION: *i*quite*enjoyed*the*colors*  
ALBION: *it*had*a*nice*balance*between*  
ALBION: *how*to*put*it*  
ALBION: *typical*musical*silliness*and*some*real*emotion*  
ALBION: *some*of*the*romance*was*a*little*  
ALBION: *demeaning*?  
SOVA: _(yeah uvu)_  
SOVA: _(that seems like how it always is with groundbreaking media from the era)_  
SOVA: _(you have to take the good with the bad)_  
SOVA: _(but in the end i think it’s worth it)_  
SOVA: _(i mean, it is loosely based on a midsummer night’s dream)_  
SOVA: _(and the BARD’s comedies didn’t feature a great deal of very deep women...)_  
SOVA: _(i’ve always had a partiality for the depth of a tragedy)_  
SOVA: _(but sometimes it can be very nice to have a happy ending that doesn’t challenge you too much, no?)_  
ALBION: *yes*  
ALBION: *of*course*  
ALBION: *it*has*certainly*left*me*in*a*good*mood*  
ALBION: *although*  
ALBION: *that*may*have*been*your*presence*  
SOVA: _(oh! ALBION, that is very sweet...ovo)_

Albion giggled at the return of Sova’s blush, and then her eyes lit up — _they really do seem to sparkle_ , Sova thought — as though she was remembering something.

“I nearly forgot! I got you a gift I think you may enjoy,” said Albion, in as close to excited as she let her voice reach. She stood up from the couch and, leaning over beside it, lifted a large but light canvas bag and rested it delicately in the crook of her elbow. She then extended a hand to lift Sova to a standing position, too, one that the rail-thin girl happily accepted.

Her heart was already doing a pirouette just knowing that she was to receive a gift, but it advanced to a full _grand jeté_ when Albion began leading her by the hand up her small set of handmade wood stairs to the loft where she keeps her bed.

She’s only slept in a ‘cupe ( _Is that what they call it to be cool?_ ) a few times — Laivan let her use his while the cabin was being construted, a cavalcade of generosity she thinks she may never fully repay — but there haven’t been more occasions for reasons she’d really rather not spoil the moment by thinking about. It’s just one of the many topics that are flitting through her mind like a hummingbird’s wingbeats. She forgives her internal monologue going completely off the rails, though, considering the circumstances.

At times like these, Sova prefers to take in the whole scene and think in script.

> _INT. CABIN NIGHT_
> 
> _A BEAUTIFUL ORACLE in a hunter green sweater that hugs her soft frame leads the PAUPER, a waif in rust-red, up the stairs. Trumpets herald the ascendancy, like a coronation will occur at the top step._
> 
> _The ORACLE and the PAUPER stand beside the simple white bed, on which a plush owl sits. The ORACLE releases the PAUPER’s hand, and the PAUPER’s face and the hesitation with which she returns her hands to a inward clasp in front of her betray how little she wanted to stop touching the ORACLE. She quickly comes to attention when the ORACLE speaks._

THE ORACLE: *close*your*eyes*  
THE ORACLE: *if*you*would*  
THE PAUPER: _(of course)_

> _The PAUPER closes her eyes, trying not to physically shake from the fact that her new love is standing in her room. She whets her lips a bit, without thinking._
> 
> _We can’t see her, but the ORACLE is humming a melody from a familiar film as she busies herself with what sounds like the rustling of fabric. The PAUPER squints her eyes closed harder, nervous, excited, but resisting the temptation to peek._
> 
> _Done, the ORACLE moves back close, putting her arms over the shorter PAUPER’s shoulders. She leans in and kisses the PAUPER, a soft and quick press of lips. This elicits a quick hitch of breath and a pointed little smile._

THE ORACLE: *alright*  
THE ORACLE: *sweet*little*bird*  
THE ORACLE: *open*your*eyes*

> _The PAUPER does, and sees first the ORACLE, wearing an expression of dreamy content, and then, behind her, a splash of color on her once-monotone bed. Green, her green, rich like the leaves of an alpine forest, standing out against white snow. It’s a new, thick quilted blanket, a ward against the nights that are growing colder, and it’s adorned with stars that sparkle just like its creator._

THE ORACLE: *you*had*mentioned*being*cold*  
THE ORACLE: *i*wanted*you*to*have*something*that*could*keep*the*coming*winter*out  
THE ORACLE: *the*constellation*on*it*is*one*that*has*had*a*great*deal*of *meaning*for*me*  
THE ORACLE: *the*mother*vine*  
THE ORACLE: *when*your*moon*is*aligned*with*the*vine*  
THE ORACLE: *it*is*a*sign*of*comfort*to*come*  
THE ORACLE: *your*wriggling*moon*is*in*alignment*with*it*now*  
THE ORACLE: *so*i*hope*and*believe*that*this*will*bring*you*that*comfort*

> _The PAUPER doesn’t know what to say, hands clasped together in a full flood of surprise and feeling. Tears well at the corner of her eyes at the gesture, and her lip wavers in an outwelling of adoration._

THE PAUPER: _(i-)_  
THE PAUPER: _(i don’t know what to say, i...)_  
THE PAUPER: _(i love you so much)_

> _At this, the ORACLE pulls the PAUPER close, and with a smooth but firm tug, comes in for a kiss that’s much less perfunctory then any time before. She starts to lead the PAUPER towards the newly adorned bed,_

and this breaks the script. Sova can’t keep writing the scene with Albion kissing her, lifting her lips just to take a slow breath in between open-mouthed adagios of motion.

When she’s lowered down onto the viridian quilt, one of Albion’s hands undoes Sova’s ponytail, soft fingers weaving deftly through the tresses of dark hair coming free. Sova feels like she must be glowing, intolerably hot beside the midblood laying beside her, and her cheeks are tingling and numb with the overwhelming excitement. She’s never felt anything like this before. If Albion is feeling similar shock, she certainly isn’t showing it, still serene and totally in command.

Albion pulls back from the kiss, leaving an ache of wanting it back that Sova thinks may stay with her every moment after this point that their lips are apart. There’s a small look of concern on her face. “Is this okay?” Albion asks, and Sova realizes that her hands are still clasped together in front of her. She’d been too afraid to even put her hands around the girl kissing her, thoroughly bereft of a confident felicity with how these things proceeded _off_ the page, despite all of the plays and novels that served as her only comfort for quite some time.

She _does_ want this, though, and she nods and says “yes, yes,” even more quietly than her usual tone of voice. She rests a hand softly, almost reverently, on Albion’s side, the soft cashmere of her sweater yielding beneath the gentle touch.

> _The ORACLE returns to kissing the PAUPER, this time more delicately._
> 
> _Soft intakes of breath and pauses for the two to look into each other’s eyes with conspiratorial smiles are the only interruptions for what feels like an age passing side by side. After a spell of this, the PAUPER settles in to rest in the ORACLE’s arms._
> 
> _The iris closes down on the scene, the two young lovers’ embracing as moonlight streams in through the window._
> 
> _THE END_

* * *

Albion held her for a time, and Sova thought she might genuinely slip into a dream — or perhaps that she would wake up from one. But then she kissed Sova on the forehead and said quietly that she had a star chart to complete while the skies were clear, and that she’d lock up and shut off the lights on her way out. One last embrace and she left the bed to do exactly that.

As Albion flipped off lights and locked the door on her way out with a _click_ , Sova pulled the bedsheets and quilt over her frame and moved over to the spot on the bed where Albion had just been, hugging the little owl plush and replaying the night in her mind.

Sovara Amalie absolutely does not worry about Albion not saying “I love you” back.

**Author's Note:**

> there’s some girls. they give me big feelings.
> 
> you can get the Work Skin to format Vast Error pesterlogs [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v2UR1ltIGSdZWKLt0pc2Xu_kCrbwW_oKT5vHb2xZiIo/edit?usp=sharing).


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